>> ♪ ♪ ♪ >> memphis tennessee is one of the most important music cities in the united states. >> it's always been a black and white city. it was never a white city and which black people t came. >> the last great march of the civil rights. it's the end of an era. it was also beginning.

it introduces the slogan of black power but becomes a tool of empowerment for african african-americans. >> welcome to memphis sound in 1819 along the banks of the mississippi, the southwestern tennessee city of about 650,000 plays a central role for the civil rights movement and its musical history provides a window into the culture of the country. over the next 90 minutes with help of our comcast cable partners we will learn about the cities history to its local authors. we begin with author who shares the story of the meredith march. >> the meredith march begins here, the last great march of the civil rights, the last time you see the civil rights come together in this, and ever, great for march that attracts national attention, the becomes a lobbying tool for political change, so in that way it is an end. it's the end of an era that we

can trace the birmingham and some of the march on washington of the iconic events t but the march is the beginning. it introduces the slogan of black power to the nation. it ignites the controversy in the national media over that slogan but also becomes a tool of empowerment for african-americans, becomes these two simple words come to mean so much in terms of lack consciousness come in terms of black history, black beauty, black political organizing, it becomes a part of the fabric of african american life. >> at the start of the march against fear which took place in june of 1966 over three weeks. it started here in memphis tennessee on june 5, 1966 with 1 man, james meredith that it's it's a strip of becomes a epic odyssey echoes, march assume memphis this is -- filled with tales of african american people registering to vote, dividing

cells of white supremacy, staking claims to feed them in new ways. it's also theki threat of political debate, it's at a crossroads. martin luther king represents one tactic within the civil rights movement in terms off his embrace of nonviolence, racial brotherhood of the march is most famous for popularizing the slogan of black power. black power in some ways is critical of the older members of the civil rights movement take as it relates to nonviolence. it grows out of the civil rights movement. much of that is the story is the key down to the crossroads. >> we have the key to use the words. they don't want us to use the term black power. i've got news for them. [applause] because what black power was supposed to do was to start bringing black people together

on the slogan that edward understood, but what, in fact, it's done is organized white people and the negro allies. >> by 1966 you could argue in the past three years african-americans had seen more political progress the need seen in any generation since reconstruction. the passage of the civil rights act of voting rights act, you're upticks in terms of black voter registration, black mobilization both the north and south in ways that are unprecedented. it is a time of profound frustration within african american communities. part of that is signaled to buy the outbreaks that occurred in a number of cities including in los angeles. it's also time of political frustration over what african-american see as the slow pace of federal reform. it hasn't has an shaped light e ground. it's the time of raised expectations that have been met

by whites themselves. james meredith started the march was one of assassinating characters in modern african history. he was born in central mississippi. his father is an independent black land owner who in some ways shields his children from the worst aspects of segregation and racism shouldn't be very proud, very independent and some ways was quite conservative in their values. meredith himself spends time in the air force, ten years in the air force, a military veteran, spent time in japan so the friesen from the dictates of american jim crow. he wants to come back to mississippi and he enrolls in school at jackson state university but its history and his ambition to attempt the university of mississippi because he believes that will allow him to progress the most.

he flies to the university of mississippi and after back-and-forth court case, a lawsuit, it wins the right to attend and that's the whole federal crisis. james mattis becomes first african-american to attend the university of mississippi but only after widespread violence on the campus, the death of two innocent people, necessity of federal marshals and national guard being called out, violent white supremacists response against america graduates in 1963 1963 is perhaps most hated african-american person in mississippi, among whites. and something of a hero to many african-americans. when he begins his march in june of 1966 he has two stated ambitions. one is to encourage black mississippians to register to vote. the voting rights act have been past the previous year in 1965 and he believes this is done when we can get more blacks were just about an starts to rest political power. mississippi had thela lowest ras of black voters in the country.

that's a second aspect, that sees that as a walk against. if he can walk from memphis to jackson among 220 miles down highway 51 and do it safely, then he was22 of african-americs they have less to fear. he has a third, he desires to run, to return to mississippi, he wants to one day run for office and place if he does is he will raise awareness of them, build a political base. meredith sets up from a peabody hotel and he marches to the state line over the course of the day. face some harassment along the way, take her as leave the city. there are some whites who was then in the cars and yelled at them but not much substance happens on on the first day. on the second day of the march, june 6, a mighty, it's relatively uneventful.

he comes to fernanda, the first cut in north mississippi that you would come across as you are marching south. and he is very enthused. he gets a one reaction from the african-americans who promise and they would register to vote and try to say they support him meanwhile across the court square the towns white people are looking on angrily and frustrated and stability see as african-american mobilization. meredith is in a good mood as he keeps marching south in the late afternoon. he's going down this gently dipping stretch of feel just south of hernando, and there's a few reporters and cars around them, a few law enforcement officials. he's got a few marching companions and then a white man emerges and chess james meredith, i only want james meredith. people start to scatter in different directions. he shoots himin a second time, e

shoots him a third time. meredith is sprawling on highway 51. his back covered in blood. his neck covered in blood. [inaudible] >> meredith is very seriously wounded. and anglers comes and takes into memphis. there are reports that have been false that he died as result of the gunshots which greets more of a media frenzy. what that ends up leading to his major civil rights organizations to sending upon memphis determined to carry on james mattis march. they say if he gets shot, then we have to follow up until that we're not going to succumb to this culture of intimidation. that means right wilkinson naacp, whitney young, martin luther king, stokely carmichael, the new chairman of the student nonviolent courtney committee, with dimmer, the press all around the country, with them

are people who decide they want to be part of the civil rights movement, participate in this. what began as one persons walk turns into a s three-week civil rights traffic answer -- extravaganza. debating with the march will look like and as a hash up with the march is come in many ways they're telling the strip with the future of the civil rights movement will be. we are here in the national civil rights museum which is billed into the motel. the lorraine motel in the 1960s was thehe only really nice establishment that an african-american could stay in as a visitor in memphis at that time because of segregation. the lorraine motel since 1930s, 1940s postage is but every major black entertainment, black figure that came through memphis. in 1966 martin luther king was a room, he stated the time and room 307 will he became the center of a swirling political debate of the what the march was going to look like.

this is on the night after james meredith was shot. they're just been a mass meeting at church and all the leaders were crowded into teens room basically debating what's the future of this march quex-what and then what does that mean for the civil rightsha movement? in the midst of these discussions in martin luther kings room, stokely carmichael, of the memosos of sncc essentiay dried out why welcomes of the naacp and drive a whitney young, the more established figures, the one with alliances with the federal government and good relationships with president johnson. that leaves martin luther king as a moderating force on the march and shapes with the flavor of the march is going to be. it in some ways freeze stokely carmichael to use the march as a vehicle for introducing the notion of black power to the entire country. marchers have divertedasas frome original path set forth by james meredith. meredith thought he would walk straight down highway 51 which

is a direct path to jackson, mississippi. the marchers decided they would detour into the mississippi delta and theth delta is the reason, the most fertile region in the city, agricultural region. it's also the region which is most notorious for aggression has the highest black populations. the reason that afforded to the delta was to reach for african-americans and get african-americans to register to vote. in the midst of the second week of the march they come to the town of greenwood that is a small city in the delta where there was a long history of sncc that was the center of organizing so stokely carmichael was a key figure at that time and had relationships with all figures and greenwood.

that was the site selected to introduce the slogan of black power. then said we were going to drop the slogan of black power reporting back to carmichael and others. and then to go back to chicago the march was congregated and maybe a thousand people they are. and it was already in progress and then to speak to the crowd about the international situation of vietnam for the need of black unity in the political mobilization and what we know as black power

what we want? black power. the response back is thunderous. and the reasons are twofold because white power is expressing the frustration it also the aspirations. it deals with federal reform the slow pace and it hasn't changed materially over the course of the civil rights movement it is a frustration and that is to be on a higher moral plane. with the white liberals in particular that is the

frustration that aspirational part as well that the notion that black people should control their own communities , state pride in black history, black beauty plaque, black history, to stay with the black fabric but that has been magnified with the internal dynamic with stokely carmichael they have a good personal family relationship and ideological differences and they both recognize that but they also deal with the fabric of what that will look like. and that while people will chant black power is also

urging the leaders not to use it in their own public speeches and to defuse the controversy of national media. that's one element. but the other one is external last week of the march the strategy started to change they bend over backwards and that when they try to register to vote because they did not want and then to pass through. but then they realize the federal government doesn't want anything to do with it. that linda johnson used as a vehicle to pass the voting rights act so he doesn't get

any political benefit. put the last major stop before you hit jackson they decide they want to camp on the ground of the black elementary school after the rally they marched through the streets and they arrive at the elementary school there isn't a lot of law enforcement officials so they take the field and set up their tents and then the next thing that happens all of a sudden these police cars, car after car after car police officers and troopers and they shoot tear gas not to crowd control but to punish the marchers they are attacking people literally with the canisters it is a gruesome scene that you can imagine.

then the police come into start beating people in the federal government's response is nothing. so these are heightened tensions leading into the rally now 15000 people participate through the streets of jackson the largest in the history of mississippi. and with the rally at the state capital and james mad - - meredith and the march has an interesting legacy over 4000 people registered to vote moreover just as they intended from the beginning black mississippi residents defied that culture of intimidation and black people are waiting

and watching and the whites are convinced those black people don't want to be part of the march they are hacking the situation and again and again they walk alongside martin luther king and they want to be part of the civil rights movement. in so many of the towns they come through they we either reignite in that town or start it it is an extraordinary story not just at the top level but those on the ground so to speak of the teachers and farmers and all of those who participate to empower them in ways that our unique and stokely carmichael those are not mutually exclusive on the ground.

but one important lesson it continues if people are interested how to build coalitions with those more negative trends today that people of different political orientations can work together. there is a myth that everyone shared the same goals and ideas. contrary. it is filled with debating strategy or the ideas are coming at the movement from different angles. that's a set one - - successful social movement isn't just on one tactic but those who have different ideologies finding a way to work together and that is something for those of us who engage in direct activism.

they can work together. >> a major recording >> stax records was a major recording labels in memphis tennessee putting up albums by artists such as voters waiting, isaac hayes and sam and dave. it's just a stax music museum we spoke with author charles hughes for more about the role music plays during race relations in the '60s and '70s. ♪ >> methodists who see wonderful support those important music cities in the united states. in the history of the music is inta many ways a roadmap of what happened in popular music in the 20th century and certainly this weekends with jazz and blues, continues on with gospel music, rock 'n roll in the 1950s, then withh soul music in the '60s and 70s, really important records come outnt of

memphis and memphis itself gets associated very early on in the days of debussy hand in the memphis blues. ♪ >> something that is defined this city for a long, long time. we just happen incalculable effect on the popular culture of the world. >> my book countries with us about this really, really pivotal moment in the 1960s and 70s when memphis, along with muscle shoals alabama and natural tennessee become three of the central places in the american recording industry, specifically because of the two musical genres of country music and soul music and they're sort of hybrid or the combination, overlaps between them. not only in that time did these three cities produce a wealth of classic recordings, huge hits, vertically acclaimed legendary records, but also each state is

sound, its distinctive sound, became associate with musical quality and authenticity. one of the things that defined the music of memphis in this time is not just the overlap between country music and soul musicn' but the working relationships between black musicians and white musicians. most famously integrated bands at a place like stax or in muscle shoals, the way black and white musicians were working together at the very moment when civil rights and white backlash are going on right but outsidee studio door. i wanted to trace the relationship, how is it that at this moment of such deep overlap between black and white music in black and white musicians there is also the increasing separation of country music and soul music as markers of political difference and even racial difference. ♪

♪ >> the 1960s and 70s were the pivotal uncomplicated moment in racial policy for the united states. the civil rights movement, a black power movement and the white reaction to that movement were defining not just the racial politics and relationship between black and white in the united states butd also in the sense structuring the entire political landscape of the country. there was nolisc more central question in the united states during that time than what the political, social and cultural relationships were going to be between black and white. richard nixon defense of this very much, elected in part on racial backlash. george wallace, segregationist governor of alabama in zip running a national presidential campaign where he wins the democratic primary in whole bunch of northern states. the entire nation is very much trying to reckon with this moment, black assertion and

black celebration of african american history and identity while at the same time that is being greeted by significant resistance from not just people who arenc standing in the strees are trying to be violent against civil rights activist but also many of the most prominent white politicians in the country. the role of the music during this time of racial upheaval without fully central and was multifaceted. on the one hand,, music reflected the conversations that were going on. it was central to the way people were understanding the civil rights movement. struggle.civil rights it express that this content that was felt by african americans about their second-class citizenship in the united states.e also came to reflect and express white resistance to that. so in a sense the music is a place that people could go to to try to think and feel through this really, really tumultuous

moment. ♪ ♪ >> but on the other hand, music was also helping to shape that conversation. country music and soul music in particular he comes symbols of this change. people are thinking of soul music as the assertive and celebratory voice of politicized blackness. the soundtrack of the civil rights of blacks are movement and many musicians whether it's aretha franklin or marvin gaye are others are very much understanding themselves as having role smudges as expressing the movement really speaking to the movement, called out activist, to have this kind of conversation. on the o other side of course yu have the rise of recordings and the belief certain artists or even kinds of music are reflective of white resistance, white backlash. most obviously of course country music which is a bit more

complicated and sometimes gets most simply understood. ♪ we don't smoke marijuana in the store ♪ >> whether it's okay for muskogee or welfare cadillac, or the broader use of country music by politicians like george wallace or richard nixon. there is this feeling the soul is representing heart of the conversation of civil rights revolution thatti country musics becoming a voice of white backlash, what nixon's of famously and effectively called the silent majority. the other element to it which export in the book in some detail is that the musicians themselves are becoming symbols of these changes can whether it's the integrated bands at stax or other studios, whether it is white soul stars, whether it's black country stars like charley pride. people are thinking about the music as a potential symbol and

mechanism of what's going on, and trying to think of it as a metaphor for the state of the south of the united states. magazine and newspaper journalists are writing extended articles about what's going on in this building, for example, try and understand how it is that memphis tennessee in the 1960s when civil rights demonstrations are going on literally write down the street, how is it black and white musicians can be in the space working together, producing this music that sounds so revolutionary. there are articles about aretha franklin to talk about her as a central figure not just in the music of the moment but indy political moment as well. country stars like merle haggard are sometimes unfairly held up as being not just the voice of this resistance but also maybe figures within it. the musicians themselves are trying to work through this moment what the music they're making and the way they are making it is thought of as

absolutely a part of this broader cultural struggle. the relationships between black and white musicians in this moment are complicated. we should not assume that just because black and white musicians are working together that that automatically means that everything is great or that automatically means that this is a sign of racial progress. for one thing black and white musicians had worked together before, right? and for another thing that are examples of racial tensions or racial conflicts even in these remarkable places like stax work such great work is going on. racial conflicts did occur in southern studios. they occurred relatively infrequently from at least what we know about them and what we have documented but they certainly did occur. sometimes they were momentary incidents, right, things that just kind of blew up in the moment. there are examples of racial

slurs being used against african-american musicians. there is an infamous session in muscle shoals when aretha franklin comes to town to make her debut single for atlantic records which becomes a never loved a man the way i love you, and do right woman, do right man, the single that defined as the queen of soul. last ..

>> those things did happen, because the story of these musicians is fundamentally the story of really talented professionals . and that work meant they were playing on different kinds of sessions. they might play a country song and move on to a soul section and move on to a pop session and finished thenight with the blues . sometimes as the music became connected to the movement, that mine might mean playing on a songwith conservative politics and liberal politics or whatever . what the musicians talk about is this was their job and what they wanted to do was make music with the people who were really talented and that allow them the opportunity to cross racial lines. if nothing else, it's a workplace. this is the place where a job done and musicians came to work so that offered an opportunity for this racial crossover, but it also i think reminds us that even

rthough it's very easy to assume that integrated music meant civil rights progress, that because black and white musicians are working together this must mean this is a space that symbolizes good things, it's much more complicated. [music] in the early 1970s, the staples singers who are reporting for stax records and who are very much thought ng of as being the literal and figurative voice of the movement, they are signed to stax records by al bell because they represent our gospel politics and the blend of music that bell understood thto be central to how stax could remain relevant. so he signs the staples singers who had performed on

the same stage as martin luther king, out of the di gospel tradition and he sends elthem ultimately to record in muscle shoals alabama where they make these incredibly powerful examples of the gospel influenced soul music, respect yourself, i'll take you there. if you're ready come go with me. just this incredible run of hits that continue justifiably to be anthems which mavis staples at the centers of these incredible importing but the thing that's ironic about that is the band on these records is niessentially all white. this is the muscle shoals rhythm section who by that point and played behind everyone from wilson pickett wto aretha franklin and bell understood that even as he wanted to make these records that were almost all intrinsically correct connected to the civil rights and black power tradition, he also wanted to work with really good rhythm sections who happened to be a bunch of white guys from alabama and

those sessions in a sense indicate the possibilities of that crossover. to the point where paul simon at the time and just gone solo and he wanted to make his first solo album and he called al bell and said who are those jamaican musicians who are playing on the staples singers record? >>. >> and of course the muscle shoals rhythm section, they're all white guys. the addendum to the muscle shoals story is that throughout the 1970s, muscle shoals works increasingly with white artists who want a black sound whether it's paul simon, the osmonds , rod stewart. any number of other folks. and muscle shoals by the end of the 70s is arguably more

associated with white artists than it is with black artists, something black artists understood to be a problem. so even as these moments of crossover symbolize just how wonderfully music can blur or erase racial boundaries, they also enforced and teach us how they're still reinforced. there are also the examples of things that weren't necessarily voluntary blowups. work necessarily things that happened that causedthings to fall apart but represented kind of a longer term discontent . one of the examples of that that i talk about in the book is that booker t and the mgs become one of the most popular groups in the united states and become a symbol or the integration at going on stax and for good reason, there an integrated band and the inlineup we continue to think of as being the classic lineup of booker t and the mgs is vertically integrated, two black members and two white numbers. but eventually, booker t and

the mgs first-base player was an african-american named louis steinberg, steinberg played with them for the first two years of their existence including on their first major hit green onion so steinberg not only helps to find the memphis soul sound, he helps define booker t and the mgs career. he is ultimately replaced by a white musician, incredible bass player named doctor don who becomes most famous of the group. steinberg is not happy and he talked about up to the fact that he was black. and even though there are other reasons why he may have been replaced, discontent louis steinberg felt was reflective of a larger belief among many musicians in the story that ultimately when given the opportunity, whitesell are going to support other white folks.

that ultimately the thing that you hear more black musicians talking about, not id having access to the same things what musicians did. ayblack musicians not having access to country stardom the way that white singers did to success with r&b sounds. the way in which studios shiftedclientele from mostly black artists the mostly white artists . those are the things ultimately that we really can understand through this story. complexity and i think it's full richness. >> memphis is in the south central part of the united states right next to the mississippi river. i think memphis is best known or music and food. the blues were perfectedhere in memphis . rock 'n roll was invented here. and soul still defines the city. memphis is roughly 65 percent african-american. memphis ring the civil war is the heart of the confederacy and was racist as any city in

america. the slave trade was very active here. in part because of the proximity to the mississippi river and thecotton industry was huge here, driven mostly by slavelabor . jim crowe was terrible . in the early 1900s. one of the good things is memphis was the one of the first cities that allowed african-americans to vote in the early 1900s but it didn't , we were not a city of good abode, not a city of brotherly love. it was a racist culture we struggled with that and still struggle with that to a large portion but in the 50s and 60s the civil rights movement took off here . and the leadership here was very strong . and integrated the city facilities. we are much more integrated city than we were. have a long way to go and let me give you an example, fred

davis was one of the first african-americans on the city council and he told me 25 years ago at ak want us club that if you add up all the business transacted in the city, i'm not talking about just by city government, us going to the grocery store, insurance.all the business transacted in the city, one percent is transacted with african-american owned businesses. that was 25 years ago. i talked to him a year ago, it's still one percent in a city that's 65 percent african-american. it's not white, but it's also not sustainable. it's not good for the future of the city so we have to change that number and obviously one of the factors for that loan number is

racism. we're working on that one particular issue in memphis today. in city government i'm talking about contracting with african-american owned businesses. when i took office 12 percent of our contracts went to minority and women owned businesses, we double that 24 percent andwe've gotten a lot of natural recognition . that's just one example. educational achievement is much higher with white young people as opposed to black. and poverty is much higher in the black community than the white community we have a long way to go. i think we've made tremendous rides in this city and i'm very proud of that fact. i'm proud to be a memphis resident but because i have such pride in the city, i want us to do even better. >> we're overlooking the mississippi river in downtown memphis learning about the city's literary scene. we take you to the library archive to speak to that

author of hidden history k memphis, wayne gaudi t. >> we are in the lindemann hooks central library and the collection that we have in the memphis and shelby county room was created in 1971. the library system realized there was not a place where memphians could come learn about their city and their community, to learn their he history though the library began collecting materials from individual donors and the city government, building a collection which contains over 300 process manuscript collections which are collections of letters, photographs, diaries, government reports and other items on either an individual , we also have these historic photographs, historic maps and what we tried to do is to tell the story of memphis.

the central library is named for benjamin lawson hooks, doctor hooks was a local civil rights pioneer. he was the first african-americanappointed to the federal communications commission . he was the head of the national naacp and he was chosen because he was very important in building the new memphis. this is after the civil rights movements when the quality was the goal for the first time and so he's a perfect representation of what memphis is today in the 21st century. one of the more interesting items we have in the collection is this map from 1940. at first glance, it's looks like any other map from the time, but looking at it more closely, you see that it shows very specifically where memphians lived, particularly african-americans so you get an idea rof what parts of town

atwere populated by african-americans which can tell us a lot , being concentrated in specific parts of town meant that other parts of town, other businesses, schools were cut off from you. it meant that transportation may not exist there. there may be businesses that aren'tlocated in those neighborhoods . and so we can get a better idea by looking at this map at how difficult it can be, could be for african-americans to be concentrated in specific parts of town. the other thing that's interesting as well, there are heavy concentrations of african-american in specific places but you see that there are african-americans right out through the city. a lot of african-americans are going to be domestics or what we would call yard men who work outside. and so they're living in close proximity to the white people that they work for.

so pull this item, it's a from prints from harper's weekly in the late 1860s. and it shows memphis, it shows a memphis wine which is so different from the way it is today. and what i think is most interesting and significant, it shows us how goods were being transported to and from memphis and the memphis of course being an important distribution center for cotton and other industry . but we see how crude it was in the 1860s and yet thow innovative it was too because they were, memphis was a high bluff so in order to get to the river, you've got to have a way to do that.so we see this but that was made and maintained so that goods could flow from the river to the city and vice versa so it just, it's a powerful look at

how the city operated, because it's one thing to say well, it's a transportation hub how did that happen? we say that also in this photograph which is taken in 1949. it's at the universal life insurance company headquarters and you see a group of african-americans secretaries. and this is one of our favorite photographs because it shows us so much about the african-american middle class which often gets ignored when we talk about our history, that we tend to think of most african americans working on a farm, sharecroppers or laborers and that's certainly true but tthere were professionalafrican-americans as well . as we said, restricted because of aggregation, discriminated against and yet these women, very strong and very powerful, standing there very proudly and it tells us

much about the african-american community in memphis and i think beyond that, in the united states. now, next to this we've got a letter from another powerful strongafrican-american woman . miss ts brown. mrs. brown was the president of the city federation of colored women's clubs . and an important aspect of memphis history is african-americans voted in large numbers in memphis. the state of tennessee granted african-americans the right to vote even before the 14th amendment took effect. and the only impediment that was ever created after the fact was the poll tax.

in many other southern states there were more restrictive measures to prevent african-americans from voting but in tennessee not as much you have again, powerful strong african-americans determined to vote, who registered their fellow african-americans in large numbers and this letter from 1927 which is from mrs. brown to eh rob who was the political boss of memphis and in 1927, he is , he has a slate of candidates including a man named watkins overton who is running for mayor. mrs. brown writes and says she is endorsing the overton club, the overton ticket and planning to vote for him and the other sponsored candidates. and we also have prompts response and he writes mrs. brown and says i know you're in a position to do a lot of good, make sure that your

members registered to vote and make sure they pay their poll tax. we have to remember this is 1927. throughout the united states most african americans cannot vote, certainly not in the south but in memphis, you have a white political boss who is corresponding with an african-american woman about voting. that is very unique in the south at that time of jim crow segregation. one thing that memphis is of course very well-known is the 1968 sanitation strike and that doctor martin luther king jr.'s murder on april 4, 1968 yet we have in our collection the papers of the police director from 1968 named holloman and some of the more interestingitems we have to first , we have a handbill from the organization which was called

citizens on the move for equality which was the umbrella organization of civil rights groups including the labor union, the naacp, southern christian leadership conference and others . to coordinate protests during the strike. and the strike took place in february 1968 because a couple of reasons, one the men worked under very unsafe working conditions, there were two african-american workers, robert walker and ethel cole who were killed when a garbage truck malfunctions. and the men were paid such a low wage that when those two men were killed, they simply had enough. and they decided they would strike for better wages and for better working conditions. and it's quickly became not just a labor strike but a civil rights struggle as the

local civil rights leadership joined forces with the union and the striking workers. socreating this organization i mentioned , so in march 1968, doctor king was invited to come to memphis to get a speech and he was so impressed by the unity of the movement in memphis and keep in mind that in 1968 doctor king had been widely criticized as being irrelevant. that is his philosophy of nonviolence no longer worked and the black power movement was gaining steam. and so the civil rights movement across the united states had fractured. but he comes to memphis and sees a unified civil rights coalition and he so impressed he says i want to come back and lead a march. so they quickly organize a march for protest march for

march 28, 1968. and this handbill gives us, tells people who are going to participate what to do,where together, where to start . and so it just provides the civil rights movement position on the march, what they were trying to accomplish and how they were trying to organize the march. there were so many people who showed up on this march, it's quickly after doctor king arrived itturned violent, there were young people , black power militants call the invaders and others students who were involved in breaking windows and that sort of thing and that doctor king was quickly sent to the rivermont hotel, the closest hotel, it was an upscale white hotel at that time. not the lorraine where he would stay later but he was

sent to the rivermont and got widely criticized but it was the police department who took in there because it's closest to where he was at the time. now on the next day, he meets with a group of invaders, white power militants and the police department receives a report and it says received information from local fbi that charles harrington, charles l cabbage and calvin leroy taylor met with martin l king at 2:0 5 pm, and mister king's room at the rivermont hotel for about 30 minutes. king advised the street to keep things cool till he returns. cavins told king that they were not getting enough action and they wanted more action. note, it was martin l king who asked to speak with these three invaders. they did notbow to him. this begs several questions . where did this information come from? it says local fbi so was the

local fbi in his room after mark that's possible. although when do they have the time to do that because they didn't know before hand that doctor king was going to stay at the rivermont because as i said that happened quickly. it's also possible they had an informant and probably more likely so who was that informants? we don't know. but it gives us a fascinating look not only in what was taking place in the room with doctor king but also how that information is gathered. >> and in fact there's another intelligence report that we have here from march 27, the day before the march. this says 12: 10 pm this day detective rented who was an african-american police officer called and stated while talking to people in the beale street area, he had learned a person who had been

seen around claiborne temple wearing the small black hat or were supposed to be beacons from los angeles and the watch area and they are supposed to be karate experts and experts with rifles. so of course the police department has to run with whatever information theyhave and they gather as much information they can , but this gives us an idea of sort of the police department's response to the sanitation strike, doctor king and so on. so a collection like this can provide more detail about our history and i hope that we hope that people will understand that and want to learn about this and we hope that memphians and anyone else who wants to come and learn the history of this community will come and use these primary sources and understand the complexity of our past.

>> barbecue fans flocked to memphis to take a bite of memphis barbecue which is known for its spice filled dry rub and a side of sauce. with the helpof our comcast cable partners we continue our visit to memphis with music producer blue mitchell who will take us on a tour around town . >> memphis was the place of a lot of racial tension but it was also the place of a lot of racial harmony. the musicians in town like nobody, nobody cared about your race . so the musicians always worked together, even from the earliest times so there was a strong sense of brotherhood amongst musicians no matter what color you were quite we took a driving tour of the city with musician, record producer and owner of royal studios blue mitchell's

thank you so much for showing us around today. >> okay, so grammy award winner, producer, you've been a lifelong resident of memphis. >> i've been here all my life and i had a crazy childhood growing up with the temptations of the house and the doobie brothers and al green . just all these cool people . went through the stax museum, see the civil rights museum and the lorraine hotel and us just some cool memphis places . >> should we go? so we're going into the downtown now. >> this is the cool part of town that's just been kind of underdevelopment for the past 10 years. memphis is predominantly black, maybe 60 percent african-american. i think the race relations

today are way cooler than they usedto be . memphis is still, we have a lot of nightclubs and restaurants where you see black and white and all races, all classes. >> we're driving on the beale street right now. beale street is kind of known as the main thorough a four memphis. >> beale street, they call it the home of the blues because this is where bb king and bobby blue bland and all the blues greats came to hone their craft and to get their message out to the world. back in the day, it was the whole neighborhood.

it wasn't just this one street, there were several streets. so this is where elvis came to learn how to dance to do all the things that he did. it was a huge influence for blues and rock 'n roll. beale street today, there's still a lot of clubs and restaurants and shops and there's stillmusic being pumped out of here seven days a week . you know, it's a vibrant entertainmentdistrict . it's one of the top tourist spots for tennessee. >> where outside the national civil rights music museum or as a lot of people know it, the lorraine motel and what's noteworthy about what happened here? >> where the reit is, that's the site where doctor kingwas assassinated in 1968 . this is an extraordinary

museum. it's a huge piece of american history. >> how did people in memphis react to having something like that happen here? >> it was a terrible thing. people were rioting and looting. the city got a lot of the samemusicians and singers like william bell and others to get on the radio and say hey guys , let's stop the rioting, stop the destruction. we're all hurt but now it's time to come together and figure out how we can heal and fix theseproblems . >> the thing about memphis is most of the popular music, the most influential american music came from the blues, rock 'n roll, soul. this is what we call souls bill usa because if the area where soul music started. and just, i mean, in a

three-mile radius you've got two legendary studios, aretha franklin's birth home, isaac hayes lived down the street, booker t and the mgs grew up around the corner so we have stax music academy, the souls bill charter school, the stax museum. >> it was known for being an integrated workplace in the 1960s when there were many integrated workplaces inthe south . >> and after doctor king was assassinated, back when the great al bell gstarted doing even more stuff, under al bell, stax became the second largest employer of african-americans in the country next to jet magazine.

>> give me an example ofsome of the music coming out during that era . >> otis redding was one of the huge successes out of that time period. booker t and the mgs. the stuff my dad was doing with the willie mitchell combo. there were a lot of groups that were completely integrated. that spirit went ason until the 70s. then there was a lot of stuff going on. the vietnam war was going on. in the early 70s and a lot of the music, people were making songs about the war and al green comes along singing his song hey, let's stay together. what about love? what about happiness? i think that started a change in the climate in the country . >> al green is still here, still preaching the message of love. >> still preaching, still

singing. we're going on hale road to see the full gospel tabernacle. also known as the church of reverend bishop al green. he was one of the first black artists to sell millions of albums. he maybe the last great american soul singer . >> he's tucked away from according pop music and now is a bishop in a church year. still singingin the church . [music] >> i think he struggled with making soul music . and then he finally came to terms that there's nothing wrong with singing about love . >> right now were coming upon graceland.

>> graceland, this is elvis's home. on the right we have lisa marie, these plants all around, on the right that stuff. speaking of racism, people wanted to ban elvis when he first came out because he sang the anthem like a black person and they didn't want his records played around certain neighborhoods, there were neighborhoods he could move into so elvis was a real pioneer and he went through a lot to get his music out and her. >> we been all over the city, seen stax records, we've seen the civil rights museum and al green's church.what do you want people to know about memphis as somebody who's lived across the country, they haven't been here, they

haven't heard of it and how twould you want your city to be represented? >> the city has this vibe that people feel and come to experience and the memphis divide, there's a spirit in memphis that lives here and you feel different herethan you do anywhere else . >> we're overlooking downtown memphis learning about the city's literary scene. next up we speak with beverly bonds about the city's most famous tourist attraction, beale street . >> beale street was a part of t what was going on within the african-american community and beginning in the mid-30s into the 40s, 50s. while the cotton carnival was taking place within the white community with the queens and

the kings and the carnival itself, just to celebrate cotton. from the mid-1930s, you also had what starts as the cotton makers fiasco and becomes the cotton makers jubilee. foromthe african-american community, in a sense, that's how the two over the issue of cotton and celebrating cotton , coming together . but on a personal level , what this meant was the entire growing up period, i knew beale street as the place you went for things like the cotton makers jubilee, the carnival side of it or you went for parades. and the white parades were usually on main street so you seldom had an african-american parade on main street because it was going on beale street which was the main street of black america. in order to focus on memphis

as it is now, you have to keep in mind that it's always been a black and white city. it was never a white city into which black people came. ayyou always have these populations trying to figure out how do they coexist in the city that have always been a part of area and beale street, if you step back into history it's an example of what it was like . who was on beale street? who owned the stores? who owned the businesses? and white people did come to beale street even when it was a black capital of black main street, became the shop for the same reason thatblack people came to shop at a slot . the two races where their shopping at the same time, it was no big deal . it pops up i have to say almost as soon as the city does .

1820s, 1830s, because that's where you have the votes and in the early part of the book, we talk about that earliest development organization where beale street was a part of what was called south memphis. it was created by, developed by a man by the name of robert pop and it starts as the areas closest to the river were primarily related to river travel. the docs, the cotton would be layered onto the riverboats. even the boarding houses were places that workers in the earliest period might be able to find somewhere to stay for the brief time they would be here. and as you get up sthe street a little bit further, you start to see the merchandising area. so you're going from housing and cafcs and just places to

unload to docking and unload cargo or whatever, to places where people, to buy goods. >> then a little further down , you started to have like residential housing, some of the wealthiest people in memphis had huge houses area on beale street or on london in this area around beale street. and that was it, so you have this difference variants area and what changes in the 20th century is that there is less of the residential. >> people began to move ffurther east or to move further south or north and create residential housing because the whole area of the city is expanding. feel street becomes more of merchandising.

it becomes more of a place where people locate their offices. where you have cafcs, and by the 1930s and 40s, you could have the stores on the first level but then about them you would have the offices of professionals, usually black professionals but itcould be in some cases white professionals . you have entertainment areas, you'll street was a red light district for a long time. i mean, it's the blues, the music life and everything but they just workplaces that my struggles hung out. >> i had an uncle on my fathers side who owned a camp of any and then eventually had a little cafc. and these were in that beale street area, on beale street but when we went to the cotton makers jubilee, we would definitely go by and

check out what his uncle boy doing today so out and his cafc but that was as close as wegot to beale street . it was a pretty eewild area. in 1967, the city had , go through this major strike, the sanitation strike. at that point a lot of the organizing of black workers was taking place at clayton company, clayton is in the beale street area so people were in and out t and as a part of the demonstration though that's one thing that's happening. the other thing is that memphis as a whole is moving further out so the merchandising that would have been centered along main street has in some cases, they have other stores. in part of the city. and that's putting a lot of the traffic on beale street.

a lot of people who would have always been going downtown to beale street for main street to do their shopping, now they're doing their shopping other places. it starts to decline. businesses posing. there are some things that remain even today that go through this period of decline and eventual decisions by the city to undertake building renewal projects which essentially meant shoveling under this whole area. it's looking at some points like combat zones. literally shoveled under which all kind of plans of this new place that would develop, this new entertainment area that would be beale street and the only thing is, peopleare not necessarily coming back . they do eventually but they're not coming back in the 70s. what they see along beale street and in that section,

that it was the great entertainment district but movies, mostly african-american movie houses like the daisy and the new daisy and then after that, they redeveloped beale street as an entertainment district. so that's akind of what you see today. and there are kind of plans as to we know that these clubs will be a part of the entertainment district or what do we do with the places like right along the river so ug there's still thinkingthrough that . beale streetis a way of attracting people back . to that area. and i think it's important that people see the historic street and don't come away with this idea that it's just an entertainment district. that it's just where we go to enjoy the clubs and buy souvenirs, but to see it as a part of community life,

african-american community life in memphis and to see it in a lot of ways like people see bourbon street and the french quarter in neworleans. you know it's an entertainment district, but you also know that you could kind of walk into some various historic places right along the streets . so you get an appreciation of what one part of new orleans life and new orleans after he was.i think it's important that you are still able to do this with a place like the old streets, even if because a lot of it isn't there anymore. even if you do it through the images and the book. >>. >> in 1878 memphis face the

yellow fever epidemic resulting in 60 percent of its population evacuating. you're on the banks of the mississippi, while the spark was placed in order to commemorate the lives of the citizens who stayed to help the 17,606 and help bury the dead. it'shere we spoke with sharon stanley to learn more about racial integration in the united states .ll >> part of the motivation behind the book was to think through what we mean when we say racial integration because we use this term a lot and i think a lot of people and we've already done. people are aware that we use to have a system of legal racial segregation in this country called jim crow. and that the system well. it was first defeated by the supreme court in 1954.and it was then wrote very definitively defeated in the 1960s the civil rights act of 1964, but it writes active 65, thefair housing act of 68 . this legislation was the end

of legal segregation in the united states and i think a lot of people assumed it was also the beginning of racial integration in the united states but with an activist circles and academic circles, there's long been a sense that we never really integrated, that we got rid of legal segregation but the landscape was just back to segregation is very much with us though i'm sure you've been in memphis for a few days, you drive through memphis it's obvious when you're in a black down and the white part of town and are part of the city that are relatively segregated but if you look at the census map of memphis, you see a strip of white going through the middle of the city and then north and south you have heavily black part of town and those kind of demographics are present in most cities in the united states and we have high rates of segregation according to almost every measure that demographers use but it's not legally imposed, it's de

facto of the book was an attempt to intervene in all those conversations, to ask what immigration really means, how we could pursue it and whether we should pursue it but in the book i'm trying to theorize and think about what immigration means for black americans specifically. in the past i think a lot of people have thought of immigration and have it distinguished desegregation from immigration so the associated integration was the end of legal segregation, but they bare minimum definition that you take the laws off the books that require theseparation of black people from the white people . and that's the very least first step of desegregation and then a slightly more robust definition would be to say okay, it's more than getting rid of the laws, you need racial mixing. it would be silly to say that a school that was 100 percent white was integrated or desegregated because it was no longer legally prohibited that there be black students

so you get this more robust intuition that we need tohave black people and white people sharing the same spaces, going to the same schools, living in the same neighborhoods , pursuing recreation in the same spot. just interacting, generally interacting with each other so that a more robust understanding of both desegregation and integration. so you ask some members of the black community what integration means they will tell you it's essentially a program of compulsory assimilation, that forces them to abandon black spaces, black churches, black schools , spots where they have control of that space, where they can their own stories, where they can comfortably be themselves or interact with people that they feel like are part of the community who have shared values, shared history and they will tell you that integration them to abandon those things and to

remake themselves in a way that is considered respectable, that hegemonic white values and this is not necessarily for them a model of justice or a desirable project . what i tried to do is take that criticism seriously and to say okay, does that mean we have to abandon integration as an ideal or is there a way to thank integration as an ideal that we can combine the idea of racial mixing and a black people and white people sharing spaces? with an idea of the genuine transformation of power and a genuine internal transformation, particularly on the part of white people because they're willing to relinquish their superior citizenship and genuinely care power with black people so that reagan contextualize an immigration that it's not just a mixture, it's also sharing of power in the genuine internal transformation on the part of .citizens so that they recognize equal citizenship of people of other racial backgrounds. if you think about the regime of jim crow segregation, it wasn't, it was obviously our legal regime that particular

spaces are reserved for white people and other places reserved for black people but it was a psychological regime that essentially required to the extent that black people and white people did interact, it's not like you can have absolute barriers that prevented interaction,to the extent they interacted, black people were expected to show their deference . i say this had a psychic effects whereby white people constantly wanted and demanded and needed signs of their own racial superiority and they took i think pleasure and comfort and relief and no sign and became enraged whenever there were signs of black on their perspectiveinsubordination . and so my claim is that that sort of psychic dynamic doesn't necessarily go away just because you have

desegregation. you could for example have a classroom full of black students and white students where the white students expect the black students to act differentially, not tosay anything that made them uncomfortable . and so for me, in order to truly overcome jim crow segregation, you need not only to dismantle those laws that psychic structure by which rights assume their own civic superiority and expects lacks will act in the way that reaffirm their superiority so what i mean by internal transformation or psychic conversion is a genuine acceptance by white people of the equal citizenship of black people. a lot of white people when i say this to them say we do accept that, that was the civil rights movement, that was what we got with the civilrights act of 1964, that's what we got with the voting rights act of 1955 and sure enough , if you interviewpeople , white or .black, nearly racial

attitudes of change. most white people will say that they believe in racial equality. no say they believe in racial fairnessand believe black epeople should have access to the ballot for black people should be able to attend cool with white people . they believe black people should have a fair shot at employment, etc. a lot of white people will say we've already undergone a psychic transformation and my claim in the book is that there's a sort of deeper level on which there's evidence that's not the case and a really recent example i think is the outrage amongst a lot of white peopleto the fact that , kaepernick started the protest during the national anthem against police brutality at nfl games and i own reading of this is that those protests are so offensive to white people not because they really think that people are protesting the anthem or the flag or that their disrespecting veterans but because of them, it's a display of the lack

insubordination and there's a long history additionally of whites wanting black athletes to perform a kind of gratefulness that even have this opportunity to participate at this level in professional sports and there's also the white response black lives matter. it's overwhelming , all lives matter for their outrage that the protest that black lives matter put on. i think all of this indicates that despite explicit claims of racial equality, that white people are still, that many white people are still outraged by displays of black demand for genuine equality. there's a couple of different ways that power, manifests itself in this country. there's the power that comes with political power. who literally has the ability to determine the contents of policies and laws and administrative procedures.

and historically and to the present although this is getting somewhat, political power has largely been held by white men. e'there's a massive wealth gap in this country, rape racial wealth gap. it can be traced to historical patterns ofracial discrimination, particularly housing and lending . whereby the aftermath of the great depression, the federal housing administration ensuring mortgages that make it possible for middle-class americans to purchase homes. sort of underwriting rules of the federal government use to in determine which mortgages should be insured or were explicitly racist so it made it difficult for black people to access wealth in the form of home ownership and made it t easier for white people to access wealth so in the book i talk about reparations this is also extraordinarily unpopular policy proposal . even bernie sanders when he

was asked about reparations that i don't think we need racial reparations, we just need a program of economic uplift that reaches everybody but i think there really is a case to be made for racial reparations, for black reparations specifically and i wouldn't i just to slavery which is often how reparations are talked about. but i would also tie into this more recent history of housing and lending discrimination where you can trace the economic impacts . so i think you can sort of make a fairly convincing claim that black communities were deprived of resources and of material wealth because of explicit federal government programs that can find them to places that we call ghettos today. that were drained of resources and had no access to opportunities so on that basis, you can argue that governments via tax dollars should have programs that infuse wealth into those

communities. this vision of integration that i'm spelling out as possible. and this is of course the question of the book, it's why the book is called an impossible dream with a? and i don't want to say no because who knows, i can't see into the future is it possible, sure. i assume under feudalism, people could not have imagined there would ever be a different economic system and i assume in 1820 people never imagined allison or we wouldn't have slavery so in that sense, yes area i think it's possible . but when i look at the conditions on the ground that i think would have to exist for this to be sort of a viable program in my life, i don't see those conditions existing. and i hope i'm wrong of course. but for a country that selected donald trump as president, donald trump ran

on a platform of explicit white racial resentment. and he has high levels of support from white people across the board, white men, white women, white people of all different incomes. there was this talk of the white working class but donald trump was supported by middle-class and working-class white people and i think that's indicative of the extent to which the kind of psychic conversion or transformation on calling for doesn't exist. it hasn't happened. there are individual white people who are exceptions and there's a basis there for coalition politics, there is support among some segments of the white community for black lives matter and that's important and it needs to be gone but in general, there just isn't sufficient support in the hewhite community for the kinds of policies and programs we would need in order to advance a worthwhile kind of racial integration. so i think part of the reason why to maintain what might

seem like a utopian ideal is because otherwise we are essentially designing ourselves for the world we inhabit right now and if that world is in just, that means we're acceptingthe endless continuation of injustice . there has to be realistic and what it means to reshape those imaginary's and to create new visions of the world which is that that is just a tiny first step and it's very uncertain process. >>. >> the peabody memphis hotel newas built in 1869. at the corner of main and monroe street. the current hotel was constructed a block away in 1923 at after the city demolished the original building. today, the peabody is known for the peabody ducks that live on the roof andmake a daily elevator ride down to the lobby . >> next, we speak with author

ben jordan who explores the origins of the boy scouts of america. >> the boy scouts of america as i described in the early decades as a movement as much as they were an organization. and they were concerned with what was it like to be a teenager and adolescent boy. and to grow up without the kind of normal markers of transition into adulthood. less children were working in child labor laws, compulsory schooling was in effect and people were doing a lot of different efforts to get kids off the streets, but that meant they weren't as much interacting with the public and how do you learn to be an adult with your isolated from the adult world so the boy scouts tried to step in and

create kind of a bridge program for adolescents, things they wouldn't go to school, we can go into a back into a modern urban industrializing society. the boy scouts of america that we are familiar with started in 1910. but it's actually an adaptation of british boy scouting whichwas the original boy scouting program 1907, 1908 and it was transplanted to different countries around the world including the united states . some folks might wonder why the local downtown ymca is a good place to film about the boy scouts of america. the first boy scout troop in memphis was sponsored and started by this downtown ymca in memphis. the building opened in 1909. 1910 they sponsor the first known boy scout troop in memphis. so the notion of institutional sponsors,

before there was even a local council around, that would take another five or six years. the ymca was probably the main partner of the boy scouts the first couple of years and eventually that strong tie as it spread out, the boy scouts started their own councils and offices in local areas. >> .. . adding middle schools, high schools and more people were going to them, not just the rare exception but the majority, requiring children to go to schools meant they were removing them somewhat from the adult community, the work world, the political world.

it pulled children out of those seniors and programs like the boy scouts and girl scouts wanted to try to reintroduce that break into adulthood for particularly urban antenna and suburban kids and industrial corporate places like downtown memphis in the early 1900s. they weree not as concerned with the world farm boys, particularly because they thought most of them were working on the family farm and at least for the boys growing up under their fathers tutelage so the didn't feel like there was a problem there. they would have regular weekly troop meetings at a place like the ymca and other troop sponsors or a church or chamber of commerce or all these places, volunteer boy scout troops. they pretty much ran the own troops. this was the spot just thinking this is what our boys and our church or in our school, doing

this for the broader community, like the rotary club or chamber of commerce or some civic organization. so they would manager these weekly troops and on the week and they would try to take a hike. and some they would do more camping type stuff. they would try to teach the boys, teenage boys, adolescent boys civics, patriotism, community engagement especially in the teens and 20s but the scouts were adored. everywhere there was a big event the scouts would be their learning to contribute back to the community, learning to serve public, learning to be civic leaders as 12, 13-year-olds come running the first day booths, chaperoning and guiding the president of the united states which help in the boy scouts of the honor guard in a way that is not quite as pervasive today but they were right in thick of things. in the time a remarkable for reaching out to a diverse crowd of town and urban and suburban

youth. especially for the 19 teens and \20{l1}s{l0}\'20{l1}s{l0} the time of the ku klux klan, immigration, the claim is as concerned as immigrants and catholics and jewish people as it were about african-americans. the was one end of spectrum, eugenicists and of the people who wanted to kick out minorities or prevent them from ever getting any kind of rights or access to the good life so to speak. the polish boy scouts of america, brought them on board, the catholic scouts america, the mormon scouts used to the own independent scout organization, brought them on board, met with a labor unione leaders, the american federation of labor, work out a compromise. so those folksd said scouting is okay with us, is pretty remarkable and they also had the

kind of t captains of industry, the rockefeller family, the vanderbilts were also sponsors. it's interesting to see such a wide religious and at the economic and immigrant outreach and membership for the time was really remarkably inclusive i would say.. here's a memphis aspect of the national boy scout story was that the first memphis boy scout council president was a man named bolton smith, a white banker, prominent and around town. he donated the first boy scout camp to the local council, but he became at one point a vice president of national council of the boy scouts of america and he along with a white boy scout professional from chattanooga name stanley harris, and also they were joined by the first paid african-american professional national boy scout staff person, like a professional and he later came

to work in memphis to work with mentors african-american scouting. but a big move in the mid 1920s, there were african-american scouts in the northn and west are very few ie south. the local council excluded them, and so bolton smith and stanley harris convinced national council to ask the rockefeller family for what is today terms about a million dollar grant to start encouraging local southern councils conflict atlantic council, the new orleans council, the memphis council, the national council, jacksonville, florida, to start african-american troops to open up scouting to african-americans. african-americans. that was a major shift in the mid 1920s, to where scouting could really reach into segments of society that had the least opportunity and access and rights and they were teaching in the mid-\20{l1}s{l0}\'20{l1}s{l0} teaching african-american boys to stand up and be full citizens and now devote in the 1920s is

pretty ahead of its time. the boy scouts of america did not allow what we call cub scouts, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 year olds. they held firm against including those groups because they didn't want the program to be childish. they wanted the program to be about adolescent or teenage boys and to transition to adult manhood. so m for me the title being modn manhood and these kind of urban town, , industrial, corporate nt rural farm, and they're very much, much concerned with turning teenage boyss into proper, responsible, cynically involve young men, that that was their target and framework. they did what the eight to 11-year-olds at all. the mostt dramatic change 1929-0 is when the cubs are coming online. that's the official approved program. they created new handbooks for

them in a whole series reaching down to eight, nine, ten, 11-year-olds, it was a major change the organization by the time you get to the '50s and 60s the number of cubs equal to thehe number of scouts and i think now it's larger. they are a younger oriented organization and what they started out to be. currently, i think the boy scouts in america are any transition. theyme decided over the last overuse to open some doors that had been close for a couple of decades. in the teens and 20s there wasn't an exclusionxu of homosexual transgender scouts. that was more kind of a conservative turn of the '70s and '80s. the front battle lines of inclusiveness in the teens and 20s were about religion and immigration and race, not so much transgender andho homosexuality. that's been a makeshift but i think they have moved themselves back towards the center ground

to be inclusive of these groups but you can run your own troops, your ownff way. you get a different right of scouting to being on who the troops sponsor is into the membership and leadership of tht particular truth is today. become that more middle of the road, wide spectrum of people can interpret and adopt scouting will be part of the boy scouts of america. in the longer and i think that would be successful in terms of theirhe membership and success. initially there some groups he didn't like that change i think but i think over the long haul i think that will do them well i think. >> twice a month c-span cities tours take booktv and american history tv on the road to explore the literary life and history of the selected city. working with her cable partners with this at various and historic sites as would any of your, authors and civic leaders. you can watch any of our past interviews and tours online by going to booktv.org and selecting c-span cities tour

from the series drop-down at the top of the page. you can also call the c-span cities tour on twitter, for behind the scenes images. >> joined us this weekend for live coverage of the miami book fair. today at 11:15 a.m. on the middle class. >> watch the miami book fair live this weekend on c-span2's booktv. >> over the past 20 years tv has

covered thousands of author events and book festivals. here's a portion of the recent program. >> we always look at the declaration of independence and federalist papers as the foundation for our book because it's going to incorporate its values that help for this great republic in 20% to come to make the more modern. our working title for the book which was rejected by the publisher was president 2.0. we started there before fighting for life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. in this insane time of global trump. the book is out. its first project and there are essays of their, written by people from both sides and it's divided in three sections,

principal, threats, and solutions. not that we know all the answers. but it's important we start the debate and we want to show its own alternative to extremes on one side or the other. we don't want american political cycle to be caught in the same trap as many european countries were, the far right energizes far left and rational people are left with no choice but to pick up one side or another. this ties, and cannot be reversed and less america recovers global leadership. first of all, our moral values. >> you can watch this and any of our programs in their entirety at tv.org. type the author's name in the search bar at the top of the page.

>> michelle obama's autobiography was recently published and is already number one on most bestseller lists. choose on book tour now speaking to tens of thousands of people in arenas across the country. here's an excerpt. >> mrs. obama dedicated her autobiography to her parents, brother, daughters, friend, staff and has been per click for coverage of michelle obama's book tour in the near future on booktv. >> if some of the current best-selling nonfiction books according to the "wall street journal."

>> some of these authors have appeared on booktv and you can watch them online at booktv.org. >> booktv recently visited the national press club annual book fair in washington, d.c. and spoke with author will hagood about columbus, ohio, during the civil rights era. >> what is tiger land? >> a book about columbus, ohio,

east high school 1968 at the school year starts that fall. everybody inside high schools very hurt and phillipe because martin luther king, jr. has been assassinated. robert f. kennedy has been assassinated. the school has its first black principal, the segregated school and they want to do something special and the school principal tells them everybody is watching us so we can't show anger, we can't walk out like some of the high schools are doing. so first they when the state basket will championship and then 55 days later, all-black school wins the state baseball championship, for some history of the state that the same school wins two championships in one year. the fact that they want it

against the backdrop of martin luther king assassination, vietnam war protests and other school walkouts gives it astonishing glory angle. >> host: how much of that was due to the principal? >> guest: he was an amazing man. he was a walk-on football player at ohio state university, and he was fierce, ferocious about pride. he cared about the students. also at the end of that year sit more kids to college, more kids went to college from this all-black high school than in any other previous year. and it just became a national story of high achievement because of all that astonishing things that had happened.

a pivotal basketball players mothers were made. they work as maids, eight out of the 12. two of the baseball players had fathers who are serving time in prison, and so for the most part these were fatherless 16 and 17-year-olds, young black boys who did something amazing in that year that was full of pain. >> host: did the columbus dispatch report on this story? >> guest: yes, they did, but, and it was the only time that the dispatch had as many black folks on the cover of the newspaper. i mean, they really had a sense that this was a big story. even though it wasn't a paper

that covers the civil rights movement, and extensively, but this was a story that they could not ignore, and they gave it place. it was a local black newspaper who had a german who i played baseball in the negro league al-qaeda knew that that the baseball team was special, and so he wanted people to pay attention, but nobody came to the baseball games and the baseball players who i tracked down from that you're told me that they were looked in the stands and sometimes they would be one or two people in the stands. both of these teams had coaches who were white, bob hart for basketball and paul for baseball. bob landed at nobody in world war ii, he was a progressive,

had a wonderful big heart. his last name, heart, also, but he knew that this was where he wanted to be. he went to ohio wesleyan university right outside of columbus, and he wrote his senior thesis on the unfair treatment of the negro soldier in world war ii. that was in 1946, and then 23 years later he's on the sideline leading this all-black high school to the state championshi championship. >> host: why did you wait 50 years to write this story? >> guest: i was born in columbus. was blessed to work on other newspapers, and it wasn't in my consciousness at the high school

had 12 state championships and i was home about five years ago after finishing my thurgood marshall book and i ran into garnet was on the baseball team that year. we were walking down the street and we're just talking about his type in a similar of your 68-1969 that they won this wonderful basketball championship. he said to me, he said but i was on the baseball team. we won the state championship that year, also. and i said no way turkey said no, we lost five games in the middle of the season. we had a five-game losing streak but we stormed back, made into the state tournament and won eight straight games. and i said, are you serious? he said, i'm absolutely serious. we won the state baseball championship. so i ran to the library the next

morning and looked it up just to make absently sure, and there it was. columbus east high when second state championship in two months timeframe. and i said, to myself i said, now, that's a book. that's a cut the what i said to myself. and instead of finding all the athletes in finding teachers and students -- set about finding -- just the writing this story together. it is two narratives. you think of these movies like blindside, friday night lights and hoosiers and remember the titans, welcome those are about one sport in one school. this is about two sports and actually made it to the top of the mountain. and i think a subtext of this

book is what was going on in america. martin luther king, jr. has a connection to this story because a reverend was a leading minister in east high school area and he had brought dr. king to columbus several times. and so when many of these athletes have been seven and eight, they had watched king in 1959, 1960 lead marches up and down east broad street right past the high school. and so for them to have to take that blow in the summer of 68, and a spring at 60 when martin luther king is assassinated, many of them had seen him in the flesh. and so it was a heartbreaking moment of course for the nation, for the city, but on a personal level for many, many, many

people. they ate at a restaurant that was called novelty food bar in -- mrs. beatty operated that food bar and she was on stage when martin luther king, jr., when he gave his i have a dream speech in 1963. so there's a lot of connection to the nation, to dr. king leading up to this amazing moment. >> host: was this your high school? >> guest: no. i went to east high school one year but then i finished at franklin heights. i knew that it was a special place. it was segregated still 14 years after the 1954 brown v. the board of education. and the book actually ends with the case at the u.s. supreme

court where the parents and the naacp sued the city of columbus for segregation, and they win. and so these athletes become a part of a major lawsuit at the end of the book. >> host: how may of the athletes were you able to track down? >> guest: of the 12, 12 basketball players, i tracked down ten of them. of the 15 baseball players, i tracked down 12. so it was amazing. bob hart who was the basketball coach had passed away but his three daughters still live in the area of columbus, and they turn over to me his world war ii letters, his archives, all of his notes, all of his scouting reports on the games. baseball, their coach, paul, he

still lives in columbus and i was so fortunate that he was a pack rat because he had all of the score books from every baseball game that year. so i really, really, really got lucky. with paul, too, he was the baseball coach but he was the assistant basketball coach, and so in a way i had his insight from both of the sports, and that was extremely helpful. two of the players from the basketball team, eddie ratliff and dwight lamar were first-team college all americans in 1974. there were only five members of that team, and so almost half the team came from this one high school where i wrote about. two of the five were first-team

college all-americans. >> host: the name of the book is "tigerland." the author is wil haygood. what book of yours are you best known for? >> guest: that would be the butler that was turned into a motion picture that starred, among others, oprah winfrey, forest whitaker, cuba gooding junior, jane fonda and vanessa redgrave. it was a pretty special movie came out in 2013. 2013. i think you can safely say it sort of took america by storm. it was an amazing heartfelt story of a gentleman who i tracked down who worked for eight american presidents. his name was eugene allen, and

yet quite unlike. he started in the white house with harry truman and what all the way up to president reagan,, though yet quite an epic life. >> host: author wil haygood, thanks for your time. >> keep an eye out for more images from the national press club book fair to air in the near future. you can also watch a damn and in of our other programs in their entirety @booktv.org. type the the author's name in e search bar at the top of the page. >> here's a a look at some boos being published this week.

>> look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on booktv on c-span2. >> c-span launched booktv 20 years ago on c-span2 and since then we've covered more than 15,000 authors with over 54,000 hours of programming. in 2004 the late the late author and journalist tom wolf discussed his novel the focus is on higher education, i am charlotte simmons.

>> i began to hear about the coed dorm but there's a total abstraction to me. i assumed more sex but i couldn't get a picture of it. we heard about corruption in big time cletus fords. i was just about how this affected we athletes themselves. what were they like? we heard of political correctness. we heard a lot about political correctness because in, journals are much more aptly talking to professors of one sort or another than to students. and i discovered right away that students today are eager to talk to some older person honestly about what they are doing. >> you can watch this at all of

the booktv the past 20 years at booktv.org. type the author's name and the workbook in the search bar at the top of the page. >> becoming is a title of michelle obama's autobiography that was recently published. it's already number one on most bestseller list. she's on book tour now speaking to tens of thousands of people in arenas across the country. here's an excerpt. >> look for more in-depth coverage of michelle obama's bookstore in the near future on booktv. >> welcome back to miami dade

college for the miami book fair. today is a full lineup of author event in interviews including collins on the middle class, racism, populism, and more. it's a full day of nonfiction authors and books here on your tv and online with behind the the scenes pictures. first up it's a conversation with authors about the u.s. supreme court. live coverage on booktv on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] >> good morning, miami. good morning. welcome to the 35th annual miami book fair. we are so delighted to be able